The transportation industry currently employs a diversity of vehicles to haul and deliver cargo from a source site, such as a railhead or central warehouse, to an end customer/user, such as a retail outlet or service site. For this purpose, various types of trucks and trailers are used in many commercial, industrial and agricultural applications to convey differently sized cargos to their destination. At present, because of their substantial cargo capacity, tractor trailers comprise a principal mode of conveyance for both large and small sized lots of material, and are often used for both long and short haul applications. While the former usage is generally considered an efficient utilization of such vehicles, employing such vehicles for local deliveries of small sized lots is a less than desirable (not optimally efficient and cost effective) means of transportation. Still, because of the unavailability of a practical transport mechanism that facilitates pick-up and delivery of a relatively small sized lot of material, tractor trailers continue to be used as a less than optimal transport mechanism.
In addition to the need for a practical transport mechanism that facilitates pick-up and delivery of a relatively small sized lot of material from a central source, there are many material handling and delivery requirements where not only is a small platform all that is required, but the transport path does not allow for a large vehicle. Non-limiting examples are the transport of a pallet of sod from a landscaping supply facility to a residential site, movement of warehouse inventory, local delivery of produce from a depot to a retail grocery, etc.